Electronic apparatus and voice recognition method for the same

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are an electronic apparatus and a voice recognition method for the same. The voice recognition method for the electronic apparatus includes: receiving an input voice of a user; determining characteristics of the user; and recognizing the input voice based on the determined characteristics of the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/683,721, filed on Jan. 7, 2010 in the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice, which claims priority from Korean Patent Application No.10-2009-0034240, filed on Apr. 20, 2009 in the Korean IntellectualProperty Office, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate tovoice recognition, and more particularly, to recognizing voice of a userby taking a user's characteristics into account.

2. Description of the Related Art

In recent years, electronic apparatus have utilized a voice recognitionfunction to recognize voice of a user as human computer interaction(HCl) for achieving a people-oriented interface.

According to the voice recognition function, the electronic apparatusreceives and recognizes an input voice as a user's command, and performsan operation corresponding to the user's command. Thus, it is importantfor the voice recognition function to correctly recognize an input voiceof a user without error.

A human voice is different according to sex, age, etc. For example, afemale has a tone or pitch which is about 30% higher than that of amale, and a child has a tone or pitch that is about 60% higher than thatof an adult.

Thus, the electronic apparatus has to take a user's characteristics suchas sex, age, etc. into account in order to correctly recognize a voicethrough the voice recognition function.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided avoice recognition method for an electronic apparatus, including:receiving an input voice of a user; determining characteristics of theuser; and recognizing the input voice based on the determinedcharacteristics of the user.

The determining the characteristics of the user may include determiningat least one of sex and age of the user.

The determining the characteristics of the user may include obtainingfrom the input voice at least one of a frequency, a tempo, a level, apitch, a tone, a frequency perturbation (jitter) and an amplitudeperturbation (shimmer) of the input voice.

The determining the characteristics of the user may include comparing avoice-model database with the determined at least one of the frequency,the tempo, the level, the pitch, the tone, the frequency perturbation(jitter) and the amplitude perturbation (shimmer) of the input voice.

The voice-model database may include at least one of a standardfrequency, a tempo, a level, a pitch, a tone, a frequency perturbation(jitter) and an amplitude perturbation (shimmer) of a voice modelcorresponding to the characteristics of the user.

The voice recognition method may further include: generating aresponsive voice to the input voice corresponding to the determinedcharacteristics of the user; and outputting the generated responsivevoice.

The generating the responsive voice may include generating theresponsive voice to have at least one of a frequency, a tempo, a level,a tone and a pitch thereof corresponding to the determinedcharacteristics of the user.

The voice recognition method may further include controlling theelectronic apparatus based on the recognized input voice.

The voice recognition method may further include displaying thedetermined characteristics of the user.

The determining the characteristics of the user may include: receivingan image of the user; and determining the characteristics of the userbased on the received image of the user.

The determining the characteristics of the user may include determiningthe characteristics of the user based on the input voice of the user.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is providedan electronic apparatus with a voice recognition function, including: avoice input unit which receives an input voice of a user; and acontroller which determines characteristics of the user and recognizesthe input voice based on the determined characteristics of the user.

The controller may determine at least one of sex and age as thecharacteristics of the user.

The controller may determine the characteristics of the user bydetermining at least one of a frequency, a tempo, a level, a pitch, atone, a frequency perturbation (jitter) and an amplitude perturbation(shimmer) of the input voice.

The electronic apparatus may further include a storage unit which storesa voice-model database, wherein the controller determines thecharacteristics of the user by comparing the voice-model database withthe determined at least one of the frequency, the tempo, the level, thepitch, the tone, the frequency perturbation (jitter) and the amplitudeperturbation (shimmer) of the input voice.

The voice-model database may include at least one of a standardfrequency, a standard tempo, a standard level, a standard pitch, astandard tone, a standard frequency perturbation (jitter) and a standardamplitude perturbation (shimmer) of a voice model corresponding to thecharacteristics of the user.

The electronic apparatus may further include a voice output unit whichgenerates a responsive voice to the input voice, wherein the controllergenerates the responsive voice to the input voice corresponding to thedetermined characteristics of the user and controls the voice outputunit to output the generated responsive voice.

The controller may generate the responsive voice to have at least one ofa frequency, a tempo, a level, a tone and a pitch thereof correspondingto the determined characteristics of the user.

The controller may control the electronic apparatus based on therecognized input voice.

The electronic apparatus may further include a display unit whichdisplays the determined characteristics of the user.

The electronic apparatus may further include an image input unit whichreceives an image of the user, wherein the controller determines thecharacteristics of the user based on the received image of the user.

The controller may determine the characteristics of the user based onthe input voice of the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and/or other aspects of the present invention will becomeapparent and more readily appreciated from the following description ofthe exemplary embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic apparatus according to afirst exemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 2A to 2C are graphs showing characteristics of an input voice withrespect to sex and age of a user, according to exemplary embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining an example for operation of anelectronic apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an electronic apparatus according to asecond exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a voice recognition method for an electronicapparatus according to an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention are describedbelow in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic apparatus 100 according to afirst exemplary embodiment.

The electronic apparatus 100 in this exemplary embodiment has a voicerecognition function to receive a user's command based on a voice andperform an operation corresponding to the received command. Theelectronic apparatus may be, for example, a mobile device such as acellular phone, an MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) player, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a navigation system, or a home appliance such as atelevision, a large format display (LFD), a set-top box (STB), acomputer system, etc.

As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic apparatus 100 includes a voice inputunit 110, a storage unit 120, a display unit 130, a voice output unit140 and a controller 150.

The voice input unit 110 receives an input voice as a user's command. Inthis exemplary embodiment, the voice input unit 110 may include amicrophone or the like which can receive a voice of a user.

The storage unit 120 stores a database of different voice modelsaccording to characteristics of a user. Here, the characteristics of mayinclude sex, age, etc.

Specifically, voices of users received through the voice input unit 110are different in characteristics from one another with respect to sexand/or age of users.

FIGS. 2A to 2C are graphs showing attributes of input voices withrespect to sex and age of average human beings.

As shown in FIG. 2A, an average female has a higher standard frequencyof an input voice than an average male. Specifically, males have astandard frequency of 122.4±2.4 Hz on average, whereas females have astandard frequency of 122.4±3.1 Hz on average.

Further, referring to FIG. 2A, the standard frequency of an average malein his twenties is lower than that of a teenager. Although the standardfrequency of an average male in his forties is stabilized. Individualdifferences (A) are noticeably large. Thereafter, the standard frequencybecomes higher in males in their fifties as compared with males in theirtwenties and thirties and lower again in males in their sixties.

The standard frequency of an average female gradually decreased betweenteenage years and thirties, and remarkably decreases after fifties.

Thus, the input voices of users are differentiated according to sexand/or age.

As shown in FIG. 2B, input voices are different in a frequencyperturbation (jitter) and a pitch with respect to sex and/or age ofusers.

Specifically, an average male has a frequency perturbation (jitter) of1.11±1.11% and a pitch of 0.63±0.57%, and an average female has afrequency perturbation (jitter) of 1.26±0.80% and a pitch of 0.75±0.51%.

The frequency perturbation (jitter) and the pitch of an average male aregradually decreased until he reaches his thirties, max out in hisforties, and then decreases again. The frequency perturbation (jitter)and the pitch of an average female gradually decreases as age increasesfrom a child to an old person.

As shown in FIG. 2C, input voices are different in an amplitudeperturbation (shimmer) with respect to sex and/or age of users.

Specifically, an average male has an amplitude perturbation (shimmer) of2.71±1.25%, and an average female has an amplitude perturbation(shimmer) of 2.96±1.72%.

Referring to FIG. 2C, the amplitude perturbation (shimmer) of an averagemale is stable until he reaches his thirties, gradually increases in hisforties, maxes out in his fifties, and then decreases. On the otherhand, the amplitude perturbation (shimmer) of an average female changeslittle throughout her age.

In this exemplary embodiment, the attributes of human voices withrespect to sex and age as shown in FIGS. 2A to 2C are tabulated andstored as the voice-model database.

Besides the attributes with respect to sex and age illustrated by FIGS.2A to 2C, the voice-model database includes tables about a tempo, atone, a level, etc. of input voices with respect to sex and age.

Further, the voice-model database may be tabulated and stored withrespect to other characteristics of human beings as well as sex and age.

The storage unit 120 in this embodiment may include an internal storagemedium such as a hard disk drive (HDD), or an external or portablestorage medium such as a universal serial bus (USB) memory and a memorycard (memory stick, compact flash (CF) card, a multi-media card (MMC)).

The display unit 130 displays the characteristics of a user determinedby operation of the controller 150 (to be described later) with regardto a received input voice. The display unit 130 may include a liquidcrystal display (LCD), and a driver (not shown) to drive the LCD.

The voice output unit 140 outputs a voice responsive to the input voicereceived through the voice input unit 110. Here, the responsive voicemay be generated to have at least one of the frequency, the tempo, thetone, the level and the pitch corresponding to the characteristics of auser.

The voice output unit 140 in this exemplary embodiment include a speakercapable of making a sound.

The controller 150 performs general control of the electronic apparatus100. In this exemplary embodiment, the controller 150 may include acentral processing unit (CPU) and perform a control operation byexecuting a predetermined application program.

The controller 150 determines the characteristics of a user based on theattributes of the user's input voice received through the user inputunit 110, and generates a responsive voice to correspond to thedetermined characteristics of the user, thereby outputting theresponsive voice through the voice output unit 140.

Specifically, the controller 150 determines at least one of thefrequency, the tempo, the level, the pitch, the frequency perturbation(jitter), the amplitude perturbation (shimmer) and the tone of an inputvoice as the attribute of the input voice, and compares the determinedattribute of the input voice with the voice-model database previouslystored in the storage unit 120, thereby determining the characteristics,e.g., sex and/or age of the user. Here, the controller 150 may removenoise from the input voice before determining the characteristics of theuser with regard to the input voice.

The controller 150 recognizes the input voice based on the determinedcharacteristics of the user, and identifies a command of the user. Thus,the user's command based on the voice is identified in consideration ofthe characteristics of the user according to sex and/or age, so thatvoice recognition can be improved in accuracy.

The controller 150 controls the electronic apparatus based on therecognized input voice. That is, the controller 150 performs anoperation in response to the user's command identified by the voicerecognition. Here, the controller 150 may generate and output apredetermined responsive voice in response to the user's command.

In more detail, the controller 150 may control a responsive voice to begenerated according to the characteristics of the user.

For example, the controller 150 may control a responsive voice having ahigher level of tone to be output for a user in the user's sixties thanthose for a user in the user's twenties and thirties. For a male in histwenties, the controller 150 may control a responsive voice to be outputcorresponding to the standard frequency of an average female in hertwenties.

To this end, the storage unit 120 may store the database about sexand/or age of a favorite voice according to the sex and/or age of auser.

Here, a user may store information about the sex and/or age of theuser's own favorite responsive voice through an input unit (not shown)such as a separately provided key button, and set up to output aresponsive voice based on the previously stored sex and/or age.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining an example for operation of anelectronic apparatus 100 according to an exemplary embodiment.

For example, in a case where the electronic apparatus 100 is anavigation system, the voice input unit 110 may receive an input voiceas a user's command to search a path.

The controller 150 may recognize the received input voice and controlthe electronic apparatus 100 to perform a corresponding operation basedon the recognized input voice.

In detail, referring to FIG. 3, the controller 150 controls the displayunit 130 to display a path searched corresponding to the input voice ofa user.

Here, the controller 150 may determine the characteristics of a user bycomparing the attributes of the input voice with the voice-modeldatabase stored in the storage unit 120.

Further, the controller 150 may control the display unit 130 to displaythe determined characteristics of a user to the user through apredetermined message 10 as shown in FIG. 3. Through the messagedisplayed on the display unit 130, a user can ascertain whether theuser's characteristics are recognized with regard to the input voice.

The controller 150 recognizes the input voice in view of the determinedcharacteristics of a user, and generates a path-guide voice as a voiceresponsive to the input voice corresponding to the determinedcharacteristics of the user, thereby outputting a generated responsivevoice to the user through the voice output unit 140.

Accordingly, the electronic apparatus 100 in the foregoing exemplaryembodiment recognizes the input voice and outputs a responsive voice inconsideration of the characteristics of a user, thereby improvingaccuracy of voice recognition and effect of information transmission.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an electronic apparatus 200 according to asecond exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The electronic apparatus 200 according to the second exemplaryembodiment further includes an image input unit 260 as compared with theelectronic apparatus 100 according to the first exemplary embodiment.

The image input unit 260, which receives an image of a user, may includea camera, a camcorder or etc. capable of taking a moving picture or astill picture.

Thus, the storage unit 220 of the electronic apparatus 200 according tothe second exemplary embodiment of the present invention furtherincludes an image database where standard image data according to sexand age are stored.

Specifically, the image database standardizes and stores attributes(e.g., a facial form, wrinkles, complexion, a hair style, and a haircolor) of appearance according to sex and age of a user.

When receiving the input voice from a user, the controller 250determines the characteristics such as the sex and/or age of a user bycomparing the user's image input through the image input unit 260 withthe image database, and recognizes the input voice in consideration ofthe determined characteristics of the user, thereby performing anoperation corresponding to the recognized input voice.

Thus, the electronic apparatus 200 according to the second exemplaryembodiment of the present invention may provide improved accuracy of thevoice recognition since it can determine the characteristics of a userthrough an image as well as an input voice.

In the electronic apparatus 200 with the foregoing configuration, avoice recognition method will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a voice recognition method for an electronicapparatus according to an exemplary embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 5, at operation S110, the electronic apparatus 100receives a user's input voice corresponding to a command through thevoice input unit 210.

At operation S120, the controller 250 determines characteristics of auser based on the input voice received in the operation S110. Here, thecontroller 250 compares the input voice with the previously storeddatabase to determine the characteristics of a user.

The characteristics of a user determined in the operation S120 mayinclude at least one of sex and age of the user, and the previouslystored database may include at least one of the voice-model database andthe image database. The voice-model database may store at least one of astandard frequency, a standard tempo, a standard level, a standardpitch, a standard tone, a standard frequency perturbation (jitter) and astandard amplitude perturbation (shimmer) of a voice model correspondingto the characteristics of a user. Further, the image database may storeimage attributes standardized according to the sex and/or age of a user.

In more detail, the controller 250 determines at least one thefrequency, the tempo, the level, the pitch, the frequency perturbation(jitter), the amplitude perturbation (shimmer) and the tone of an inputvoice as the attribute of the input voice, and compares the determinedcharacteristics attribute of the input voice with the voice-modeldatabase of the storage unit 220, thereby determining thecharacteristics of a user, e.g., the user's sex and/or age.

In the operation S120, the controller 250 may control the display unit130 to display the determined characteristics of a user.

At operation S130, the controller 250 recognizes the input voicereceived in the operation S110, based on the user's characteristicsdetermined in the operation S120, and identifies the user's command.

At operation S140, the controller 250 controls the electronic apparatus200 based on the input voice recognized in the operation S130. That is,the controller 250 performs an operation corresponding to the user'scommand identified in the operation S130.

At operation S150, the controller 250 may generate a voice responsive tothe input voice according to the user's characteristics determined inthe operation S120.

Here, the controller 250 may control the responsive voice to have atleast one of the frequency, the tempo, the level, the tone and the pitchof the responsive voice correspond to the user's characteristicsdetermined in the operation S120. For example, the responsive voice maybe adjusted in the level, the tempo, etc. corresponding to thecharacteristics of the user, or the responsive voice may be generated asa voice of a certain sex and/or age preferred by a user whosecharacteristics has been determined.

At operation S160, the controller 250 outputs the responsive voicegenerated in the operation S150 through the voice output unit 240.

As described above, the exemplary embodiments not only enhances accuracyof voice recognition since the voice recognition is performed accordingto the characteristics (sex, age, etc.), but may improve effect ofinformation transmission because the responsive voice is generated tocorrespond to the characteristics of a user.

The present invention is not limited to the foregoing exemplaryembodiments and may alternatively be applied to a home appliance, amobile device or the like various electronic apparatuses which can becontrolled by voice.

Although a few exemplary embodiments have been shown and described, itwill be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be madein these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit ofthe invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims andtheir equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A voice recognition method for an electronicapparatus, the voice recognition method comprising: receiving, by theelectronic apparatus, an input voice signal of a user; determining, bythe electronic apparatus, characteristics of the user based onattributes of the input voice signal; selecting, by the electronicapparatus, a voice model from a plurality of voice models stored in theelectronic apparatus to determine the characteristics of the user basedon the attributes of the input voice signal by comparing the voicemodels with the determined attributes of the input voice signal, theplurality of voice models comprising standardized attributes ofrespective average users and being associated with a plurality ofcharacteristics of the respective average users; identifying, by theelectronic apparatus, a user's command corresponding to the input voicesignal of the user based on the determined characteristics of the user;and generating a responsive voice that is responsive to the identifieduser's command based on the determined characteristics of the user andthe selected voice model, wherein the determined characteristics of theuser correspond to an age of the user, wherein the generating theresponsive voice comprises determining a tone of the responsive voicebased on data stored in a storage unit, the determined tone of theresponsive voice correlating with an age preferred by the usercorresponding to the determined characteristics, and wherein thedetermined tone of the responsive voice is a higher level of tone whenthe age of the user is older.
 2. The voice recognition method accordingto claim 1, wherein the electronic apparatus further comprises a displayunit configured to display an image.
 3. The voice recognition methodaccording to claim 2, further comprising controlling the display unitaccording to the input voice signal.
 4. The voice recognition methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the determining the characteristics of theuser comprises determining the attributes of the input voice signalcomprising at least one of a frequency, a tempo, a level, a pitch, atone, a frequency perturbation and an amplitude perturbation of theinput voice signal.
 5. The voice recognition method according to claim4, wherein a database of the voice models comprises at least one of astandard frequency, a standard tempo, a standard level, a standardpitch, a standard tone, a standard frequency perturbation and anamplitude perturbation of a voice model corresponding to each of theplurality of voice models.
 6. The voice recognition method according toclaim 4, further comprising: outputting the generated responsive voice,wherein the responsive voice corresponds to a voice of at least one of apredetermined sex and a predetermined age preferred by the user whosecharacteristics have been determined, wherein the plurality of voicemodels are models of respective average users according to at least oneamong an age range and a gender.
 7. The voice recognition methodaccording to claim 6, wherein the generating the responsive voicecomprises generating the responsive voice to have at least one of afrequency, a tempo, a level, a tone and a pitch corresponding to thedetermined characteristics of the user.
 8. The voice recognition methodaccording to claim 4, wherein the plurality of voice models are modelsof respective average users according to at least one among an age rangeand a gender, and a database of the plurality of voice models ispreviously stored in the electronic apparatus with respect to theplurality of characteristics of the respective average users and theselecting the voice model.
 9. The voice recognition method according toclaim 1, further comprising controlling the electronic apparatus basedon the identified user's command.
 10. The voice recognition methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the responsive voice mimics an age of auser preferred by the user corresponding to the determinedcharacteristics of the user.
 11. The voice recognition method accordingto claim 1, wherein the determining the characteristics of the usercomprises determining a sex and the age of the user based on the inputvoice signal.
 12. An electronic apparatus having a voice recognitionfunction, the electronic apparatus comprising: a voice input unitconfigured to receive an input voice signal of a user; and a controllerconfigured to determine characteristics of the user based on the inputvoice signal, to select a voice model from a plurality of voice modelsstored in the electronic apparatus to determine the characteristics ofthe user based on attributes of the input voice signal by comparing thevoice models with the determined attributes of the input voice signal,the plurality of voice models comprising standardized attributes ofrespective average users and being associated with a plurality ofcharacteristics of the respective average users, to identify a user'scommand corresponding to the input voice signal of the user based on thedetermined characteristics of the user, and to generate a responsivevoice that is responsive to the identified user's command based on thedetermined characteristics of the user and the selected voice model,wherein the determined characteristics of the user correspond to an ageof the user, wherein the controller is further configured to determine atone of the responsive voice based on data stored in a storage unit, thedetermined tone of the responsive voice correlating with an agepreferred by the user corresponding to the determined characteristics,and wherein the determined tone of the responsive voice is a higherlevel of tone when the age of the user is older.
 13. The electronicapparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a display unitconfigured to display an image.
 14. The electronic apparatus accordingto claim 13, wherein the controller is further configured to control thedisplay unit according to the input voice signal.
 15. The electronicapparatus according to claim 12, wherein the controller is furtherconfigured to determine the characteristics of the user by determiningthe attributes of the input voice signal comprising at least one of afrequency, a tempo, a level, a pitch, a tone, a frequency perturbationand an amplitude perturbation of the input voice signal.
 16. Theelectronic apparatus according to claim 15, wherein a database of theplurality of voice models comprises at least one of a standardfrequency, a tempo, a level, a pitch, a tone, a frequency perturbationand an amplitude perturbation of a voice model corresponding to each ofthe plurality of voice models.
 17. The electronic apparatus according toclaim 15, further comprising a voice output unit configured to outputthe responsive voice to the input voice signal, wherein the responsivevoice corresponding to a voice of at least one of a predetermined sexand a predetermined age preferred by the user whose characteristics havebeen determined, and wherein the plurality of voice models are models ofrespective average users according to at least one among an age rangeand a gender.
 18. The electronic apparatus according to claim 17,wherein the controller is further configured to generate the responsivevoice to have at least one of a frequency, a tempo, a level, a tone anda pitch thereof corresponding to the determined characteristics of theuser.
 19. The electronic apparatus according to claim 15, wherein theplurality of voice models are models of respective average usersaccording to at least one among an age range and a gender, and adatabase of the plurality of voice models is previously stored in theelectronic apparatus with respect to the plurality of characteristics ofthe respective average users and the controller is further configured toselect the voice model by using the database of the plurality of voicemodels.
 20. The electronic apparatus according to claim 12, wherein thecontroller is further configured to control the electronic apparatusbased on the identified user's command.
 21. The electronic apparatusaccording to claim 12, wherein the responsive voice mimics an age of auser preferred by the user corresponding to the determinedcharacteristics of the user.
 22. The electronic apparatus according toclaim 12, wherein the controller is further configured to determine thecharacteristics of the user by determining a sex and the age of the userbased on the input voice signals.
 23. A method of operating anelectronic apparatus having a voice recognition function, the methodcomprising: receiving, by the electronic apparatus, an input voicesignal of a user through a voice input unit of the electronic apparatus;determining, by the electronic apparatus, characteristics of the user bya controller of the electronic apparatus based on attributes of theinput voice signal; selecting, by the electronic apparatus, a voicemodel from a plurality of voice models stored in the electronicapparatus based on the attributes of the input voice signal by analyzingat least one attribute of the input voice signal with respect to atleast one preset attribute of the voice model and determining the voicemodel based on the analyzed at least one attribute of the input voicesignal, the plurality of voice models comprising standardized attributesof respective average users and being associated with plurality ofcharacteristics of the respective average users; performing, by theelectronic apparatus, an operation of the electronic apparatus based onthe determined characteristics of the user, the operation beingcorresponding to the input voice signal of the user; and generating aresponsive voice that is responsive to the input voice signal based onthe determined characteristics of the user and the selected voice model,wherein the determined characteristics of the user correspond to an ageof the user, wherein the generating the responsive voice comprisesdetermining a tone of the responsive voice based on data stored in astorage unit, the determined tone of the responsive voice correlatingwith an age preferred by the user corresponding to the determinedcharacteristics, and wherein the determined tone of the responsive voiceis a higher level of tone when the age of the user is older.
 24. Themethod according to claim 23, wherein the electronic apparatus furthercomprises a display unit configured to display an image.
 25. The methodaccording to claim 24, further comprising controlling the display unitaccording to the input voice signal.
 26. The method according to claim23, wherein the determining the characteristics of the user comprisesdetermining a sex and the age of the user based on the input voicesignals.
 27. The method according to claim 23, wherein the responsivevoice mimics an age of a user preferred by the user corresponding to thedetermined characteristics of the user.